Morbid obesity is a serious medical condition pervasive in the United States and other countries. Its complications include hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, multiple orthopedic problems and pulmonary insufficiency with markedly decreased life expectancy.
Several surgical techniques have been developed to treat morbid obesity, e.g., bypassing an absorptive surface of the small intestine, or reducing the stomach size. These procedures are difficult to perform in morbidly obese patients because it is often difficult to gain access to the digestive organs. In particular, the layers of fat encountered in morbidly obese patients make difficult direct exposure of the digestive organs with a wound retractor, and standard laparoscopic trocars may be of inadequate length.
In addition, previously known open surgical procedures may present numerous life-threatening post-operative complications, and may cause a typical diarrhea, electrolytic imbalance, unpredictable weight loss and reflux of nutritious chyme proximal to the site of the anastamosis. Further, the sutures or staples that are often used in these surgical procedures may require extensive training by the clinician to achieve competent use, and may concentrate significant force over a small surface area of the tissue, thereby potentially causing the suture or staple to tear through the tissue.
In view of the aforementioned limitations, it would be desirable to provide methods and apparatus for achieving gastric reduction by reconfiguring the GI lumen of a patient.
It also would be desirable to provide methods for delivering anchors for use in a gastric reduction system for reducing the cross-sectional area of a gastrointestinal lumen.
It further would be desirable to provide methods for reducing the cross-sectional area of a gastrointestinal lumen by approximating opposing tissue walls of the gastrointestinal lumen.
It further would be desirable to provide methods and apparatus for creating gastrointestinal tissue folds to facilitate tissue approximation within a gastrointestinal lumen.